This semester’s Port Planning and Policy class, led by Professor Austin Becker and R. Duncan McIntosh, has delved deep into the working waterfronts in New York City and Boston. Students discussed topics including the future role of ports, their development, and their current operational constraints with local port officials and workers. The course is designed to help students situate ports in the greater world of (hopefully resilient) coastal infrastructure and marine economies. 

At Port of Boston, students toured the facility with the guidance of Lynn Vikesland, following containers from their tagged entry to the port, through their processing, to the cargo ship. After attending the PIANC Port Resilience conference, students then toured the facilities at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Port – just one of five port holdings of the Port Authority of New York New Jersey, let alone its other transport services. In both cases, ports are feeling the pressure of urban development and gentrification, the expansion of the Panama Canal, and changing technology. Students are looking forward to the field trips to come!